Today, some news from the blogging world:
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch suspended a features reporter and seized his computer after an article was published in the Riverfront Times (employer of the lovely K-Mac) about his blog (which was written under a pseudonym). The full article can be found here. He commented a lot on stories he wrote and people at the paper.
Food for thought.
Also interesting, is this commentary on the incident.
Speaking of media, a good column from the Baltimore Sun talks about how the media has failed the public. This is an excerpt:
Journalists have allowed political operatives to successfully control what is discussed and how it is discussed. TV programs that pit an extremist on the left against an extremist on the right have made it clear there is no room for moderate voices. Walter Cronkite used to be the most trusted journalist in America. Now Jon Stewart - a comedian with a "fake news" show - may be. President Bush invaded Iraq on false pretenses, and many in the news media not only didn't question his assertions but served to legitimize them. The Patriot Act, which authorizes serious abridgments of civil liberties, was enacted and allowed to continue with hardly a whimper from the institutions that depend on the First Amendment for their existence. . . . Pursuing these kinds of stories takes time, energy and sources. It is fueled by a healthy skepticism from reporters and courage on the part of editors. And it requires that government be sufficiently in awe of the power of the press so that it provide answers and access. Instead, we have too many reporters who believe it is their job simply to quote what people tell them - who think being "investigative" is getting a conflicting quote.
If you want to read the whole column, click the link above. (If you don't want to register, you can use the user name and password ''commonbriguy.'')
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2 comments:
this is something i was going to bring up, too. blog-firings seem to be getting quite popular, but they were going on even three years ago. if you haven't already, check out www.dooce.com
it is a really fancy blog by this woman who was working in california as a web designer. she got fired for stuff she wrote about coworkers and her story received a ton of attention. while she admits that one of her "targets" was a close friend who knew what she was doing and that some of the stories were exaggerations, she was still canned. i encourage you to check it out. she has her blogs filed. if you look under the subject "dooced" you can find the blogs that she wrote that a) she was fired for; b) she wrote during the process of being fired.
but warning, be ready to be humbled. her website is insane with how well-designed and functional it is.
here i was contemplating whether or not i should start a blog of my own. i was very nearly past the question mark phase and well on my way to the exclamation point, when i read your blog. now i'm in reverse, having again passed the question mark phase (but in the other direction), and well on my way to "a blog? why the hell would i want to do that?"
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